A planning document overseeing Australia's largest water licence does not have the backing of the government-appointed committee tasked with helping to develop it, prompting the NT Environment Centre to call for an urgent delay in the plan's rollout.
A leaked letter from a Water Advisory Committee to the Territory's Water Controller says the new planning document does not adequately protect the arid desert environment it oversees and accuses the government of "mining water".
A draft of the new Western Davenport Water Allocation Plan (WAP) is due to be released for public comment on November 7, and will update a 2018 document that governs how groundwater in a vast region south of Tennant Creek should be managed.
The plan covers 24,500 square kilometres of country and includes Singleton Station, the planned site of a major horticultural project that has been granted a record-breaking licence to grow hay, melons, and avocados for export.
Through a staged 30-year licence, the project has been the subject of legal scrutiny and would allow the licence holder to eventually extract 40,000 megalitres of groundwater a year.
The licence holder, Fortune Agribusiness, has said the project would generate 1,500 seasonal jobs for the impoverished region.
Addressed to Water Controller Jo Townsend — who is also the head of the Department of Environment and Water Security — and signed off by the committee's chair, the ABC understands the letter has the near-unanimous support of the Western Davenport Ti Tree Water Advisory Committee.
It informs Ms Townsend "A majority of members were unwilling to endorse the current documents".
The ABC understands this is unprecedented in the Territory.
The 10-person committee was appointed by the government to advise the government over the plan.
A diverse group of technical experts, horticulturalists, and stakeholders, the committee includes representatives from the Central Land Council and the NT Farmers Association.
Kirsty Howey from the NT Environment Centre said she had seen the draft plan and called for its release to be delayed until the committee's concerns were addressed.
"It's absolutely imperative that the minister listens to what the Water Advisory Committee is saying about the plan and delays its release until its fundamental deficiencies are resolved," she said.
NT government accused of water mining
Water Allocation Plans are used across Australia and are supposed to ensure water resources are managed sustainably.
But the letter, sent by email on October 9, revealed the committee feared the soon-to-be-released plan failed to take a "precautionary approach" and would result in the water resource being over-allocated, as has been seen in the Murray-Darling Basin.
The letter also accused the government of "water mining" by potentially allowing the region's groundwater to be depleted faster than it could be replenished.
The letter also says the draft "lacks any impetus … for the Department to continue to undertake enhanced monitoring", which it says is a "major deficiency".
The NT government has disputed this, and said in a statement it was taking a precautionary approach.
Not in line with national standards
The previous plan had four "objectives": to leave enough water for the environment, to protect Aboriginal cultural values, to allocate water for drinking water, and development.
These are absent from the draft.
The committee said this raised "a major concern", and in the letter said it believed the draft plan did not adequately protect the environment or Aboriginal cultural values.
Dr Howey called the draft plan a "significant regression" for the Territory's water planning that was also at odds with national standards.
By not outlining clear expectations around environmental change and the protection of cultural values, she said it did not "meet the basic criteria in the National Water Initiative, and that's extremely troubling."
"The question here is whether the government has done its job and allocated water sustainably. We don't think that's happened," Dr Howey said.
She said this could open the document up to legal challenge.
Plan harder to challenge in court
The ABC has seen the draft plan, which deviates from previous plans by being divided into three documents.
The ABC understands only one of these documents will be gazetted, meaning part of the plan will be legally binding.
Concerns over whether or not the previous WAP was followed by the department when it awarded the Singleton Station licence is the subject of an ongoing legal case.
Dr Howey said the new, draft plan would make similar, future legal challenges much harder.
The NT Water Controller and Environment Minister Lauren Moss declined to be interviewed for this story and did not answer a series of detailed questions from the ABC.
In a statement, Ms Moss said the draft document was "just a starting point" and invited the public to participate in ongoing consultation over the Territory's water policy.
It said the government was "using extensive science and data to establish the frameworks to ensure appropriate, evidence-based allocation of water for economic development, using a precautionary approach and prioritising water for key environmental and cultural values as required by the Water Act 1992".
Once the draft has been released, the public will have four weeks to make submissions.
